This invention relates to side rear view mirrors for trucks and the like and more particularly to a rear view mirror head and an arrangement for mounting the head on the support arm providing for adjustment of the head both laterally and angularly or pivotally with respect to the arm.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,779 I have disclosed a rear view mirror head which aerodynamically presents a minimum of wind resistance. The mirror head includes a body or cover of sheet metal extending between a pair of spaced apart end caps and trapping a mirror in spaced relation to the main body of the sheet metal cover. The end caps, formed of injection molded plastic material, are configured to receive the opposite terminal edges of the cover, and the ends of the mirror and provide space between the cover sheet and the mirror, through which a cylindrical rod extends longitudinally through the end caps and between the sheet material and the mirror, to tie the assembly together.
In my prior inventon, the end caps were configured to conform to the shape of the sheet metal cover and glass, and the mounting arrangement included the longitudinally extending rod. If it was desired to provide for lateral adjustment of the mirror head with respect to the mounting arm, it was necessary to provide an auxiliary adjusting mechanism for that purpose. Usually, an encircling clip, at each end of the mirror head, connected the through rod to the adjacent U-shaped support arm, and the position of the mirror head was adjusted by loosening the clip and causing the same to slide along the tubular arm. The arrangement was less than entirely satisfactory for a number of reasons. First, all of the wind loading and forces on the mirror were placed directly on the shaft. The shaft was cylindrical and under certain conditions could permit the mirror head to twist. Second, the lateral position or adjustment of the mirror depended upon the ability to slide the encircling clip along the body of the support arm, and then on the retightening sufficient to hold the part in a predetermined relation.
There accordingly exists a need for an improved mirror head mounting arrangement, which provides for stiffening of the mirror head, and provides for the adjustable mounting of the mirror head at the end caps, upon the support arm.